The State Department under President Trump has been dangerously politicized, forcing the agency to become a tool for the president's political objectives. Beginning under the leadership of Tillerson and continued under Pompeo, there has been a clear targeting of career officials in the State department. Trump's Secretaries of State have implemented a top-down power structure in the agency, icing out and harassing the senior experts they perceived as disloyal. The State Department has hemorrhaged foreign officers under Trump's purview, depriving it of collective decades of expertise.
Secretary of State Pompeo announced that he would release more of Hilary Clinton's emails just weeks before the presidential election, only a day after the predisent had expressed his disappointment over Twitter about the emails being withheld from the public. The partisan posturing by Pompeo is the latest in a troublingly long line of examples of the State Department's politicization. Unsatisfied with the already deep damage caused to the agency's career officials, Trump has also announced an executive order intended to extend his ability to dismiss any civil servants unwilling to fall in line. This executive order - going into effect in just 90 days - will allow for thousands of federal civil servants to now be classified as at-will employees. Those affected will have their protections effectively stripped as career professionals, giving the president and his politically-appointed department heads the ability to target these employees for political dismissals without recourse.
Under the Trump administration the expertise within the State Department has been diminished, and the agency has been forced into becoming a political institution beholden to the executive branch's interests. The damage done and personnel lost is generational.
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